The Muppets New Trailer, Seven Things Joel Stein Learned on Set, Muppets Last by “Not Being Cynical”

The Muppets New Trailer, Seven Things Joel Stein Learned on Set, Muppets Last by "Not Being Cynical"

Time humorist Joel Stein recently reported on his visit to the set of Disney’s The Muppets, which arrives just days before Turkey time on November 23 (check out the new trailer below). James Bobin directs from a script (by Jason Segel and his Forgetting Sarah Marshall director Nicholas Stoller) based on Jim Henson’s beloved characters. Segel also stars alongside Amy Adams and cohorts Zach Galifianakis, Emily Blunt, Ed Helms, Jack Black, Neil Patrick Harris, Rashida Jones and more. Here are some highlights from Stein’s visit:

1. “Between takes, Segel out-Muppets the actual Muppets, his grin still Kermit-wide long after the real Kermit the Frog closes his mouth and collapses around puppeteer Steve Whitmire’s hand.”

2. Of the plot, Stoller tells Stein: “They’re all pretty lonely and miss their friends,..If this were real life, it wouldn’t work. It would be weird Facebook friend requests from people you went to junior high with.”

3. “There are moments when you get the feeling someone is going to walk in and tell everyone the Muppets aren’t real and a lot of people are going to cry.”

4. Stoller tells Stein that back in the 70s and 80s, “the Muppets were the gateway drug to comedy..You’d try it, and you’d want more of it, so you’d try Monty Python and Saturday Night Live. Then you’d fall down the rabbit hole. They’re so self-aware, and there are jokes flying everywhere. They’re like The Simpsons without cynicism.”

5. Bobin tells Stein, referencing the Muppet Show’s UK roots and Monty-Python-like absurdity: “There has to be a time when stupid jokes and warmth and puns come back..It’s a change of direction.”

6. Segel admits to Stein: “I relate to the Muppets on a very deep level,..They care about being nice to people. I don’t really care about much besides being nice.”

7. Segel says, of how the Muppets have stuck around: “There was a Christopher Guest mocking comedy wave, a Farrelly brothers gross-out comedy wave, a cringe-factor wave..The Muppets stuck around by not being cynical.”

Comments

not a fan
May 14, 2016 7:56 pm

Muppets, yawn. Joel Stein, double-yawn. Another feeble attempt by this wannabe tv scribe and screenwriter to suck up to the Apatow crew. Maybe you missed his brown-nose epic “The Education of a Comic Prodigy” about Seth Rogen or his hype-heavy “Taking Judd Apatow Seriously.” I mean, listen to this line: “Apatow is a guy who can get into his own head, set up an office there and really go to work.” Eye-roll, cringe, whatever — this is primo wank from a dude desperate to get a Hollywood gig. Oh, and don’t forget perhaps his most grand gushfest ever: “Paul Rudd: Everybody’s Buddy”. Even the Cookie Monster is more subtle. . . .